Kakoli drops another bomb, says "not 20 but 22 MPs" with us as TMC rebels head to Delhi

The political crisis engulfing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has deepened exponentially as rebel leader and Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar exploded a fresh political bombshell on Sunday morning. Speaking to reporters before boarding a flight to New Delhi from Kolkata, Dastidar claimed that the number of dissenting Lok Sabha MPs in their camp has risen from 20 to 22. This announcement signals that two more unnamed lawmakers have quietly shifted their allegiance away from Mamata Banerjee, further diminishing the ruling state party's strength ahead of a crucial legislative showdown in the national capital.

The rebel faction is preparing for a high-stakes meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday, where they plan to debut a new parliamentary faction. Rather than merely breaking away as a separate bloc, the dissidents under the guidance of Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Shatabdi Roy are poised to claim that they represent the "real Trinamool" based on numerical majority. As part of this strategy, the rebels plan to formally propose removing Abhishek Banerjee from his position as the TMC leader in the Lok Sabha. They intend to replace him with veteran parliamentarian Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who officially defected to the rebel camp on Saturday and is expected to become the leader of the breakaway faction.

To consolidate their strategy before confronting the Lok Sabha Speaker, Dastidar is hosting a crucial dinner meeting at her Delhi residence on Sunday evening. The gathering will serve as a domestic war room where the agitating MPs will finalize their formal petition to the Speaker. Beyond a change in internal leadership, the rebel group will officially request that their seats be physically moved out of the opposition benches and reallocated alongside the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs, confirming their intent to provide external support to the central government.

The rapid exodus has left West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a drastically hollowed-out parliamentary presence. The original dissent letter featured 19 prominent signatures, including popular celebrities-turned-politicians like Dev, Rachana Banerjee, June Malia, and Yusuf Pathan, alongside organizational stalwarts like Sayoni Ghosh and Mala Roy. With Sudip Bandyopadhyay and the two newly claimed defectors, Mamata Banerjee's loyalist circle in the Lower House has shrunk to just eight loyal MPs, which includes Abhishek Banerjee, Kalyan Banerjee, Saugata Roy, and Mahua Moitra.